Official Basic Class List

Here is the official list of basic (non-elite, non-hero) classes that are guaranteed for launch. More will be coming down the line!

Space Marines

Tactical

Devastator

Assault

Apothecary

Orks

Shoota (final name TBD)

'Eavy/Loota (final name TBD)

Stormboy (final name TBD)

Painboy

Chaos

Tactical

Havoc

Raptor

Aspiring Sorcerer

Eldar

Dire Avenger

Fire Dragon

Dark Reaper

Swooping Hawk

Howling Banshee

Striking Scorpion

Warlock

You may be asking, "Why do the Eldar have more classes than anyone else?" Hold on, I'll tell you...

A Space Marine (or Ork, or Chaos) class is very flexible – for example a Tactical marine can be excellent at mid-range anti-infantry with a boltgun, be a short-range vehicle killer with a meltagun or take the sniper role with a Stalker Bolter. An Assault Marine performs a very different function depending on whether they equip a Jump Pack or a Storm Shield and a Devastator can be in the front lines with a Multi-Melta or stand far at the back with a Lascannon. They can also modify their accessories to get more accuracy, survivability, etc., in their role.

The unique flavor of Eldar Aspects, on the other hand, is that they are very specialized. A Swooping Hawk’s job is always to fly overhead and take out infantry, while a Dark Reaper tries to stay as far away from their targets as possible. So while the Eldar have as much customization as the other factions, it’s spread across a larger number of classes and there are fewer combat roles per class.

Our goal is to do justice to each faction, so rather than try to cram the same system into the Eldar, we opted to widen their class selection in order to give them the roles they needed to be competitive on the battlefield.

Why isn't (my favorite unit) on the list?

In some cases, we want certain units to be an elite or hero class due to the power it has on the battlefield, and this is just a list of the basic classes that cost no RP to spawn. We will give you more updates on elites and heroes as production continues. Here's a hint: with a few exceptions, if it's an elite or HQ in the books, it's probably going to be considered an elite or hero in EC!

Other units may center around gameplay roles that we don't plan on featuring prominently at launch - for example, on-the-fly teleporting or extreme sniping. We plan to add these mechanics later, but we already have a lot on our plate putting the rest of the roles in place and making sure they're as good as they can be.

Isn't this list a little different from the last time I saw it?

If you're referring to a certain leaked email from a certain studio head that went out on Friday, that was a pre-confirmation list that needed to be checked with all the relevant parties before going out, so yes, it changed!

Honestly, we wanted to make sure that we could commit to everything we put out there and when I wrote that email we were only 80% sure on the Striking Scorpion for launch. Based on discussions with the art team and Eldar players' feedback we dug deeper into the scope and decided that we could push to a 100% commitment at launch. But uh, don't expect that to work every time!

What about the chapter-specific classes? There are no Space Wolf Apothecaries!

Although the sub-factions' classes generally fit into the same roles, there are unique flavors to certain classes for particular chapters. We will provide more details shortly, but expect to see Long Fangs, Sanguinary Priests, etc.

Note that we're adding special stuff (weapons, powers, accessories) for every chapter/clan/legion/craftworld, so classes aren't the only sub-faction-specific bonuses.

Thanks for the update Brent! Personally I am happy with the class selection (Playing SM). However I'm very curious as to how Heroes will work and whether they will have different spawning frequencies i.e. one you spawn every 6hrs vs another every 24.